Susan Elizabeth Maloney: Gold Coast finance broker jailed for swindling $3 million-plus
A Gold Coast finance broker left a trail of broken people in her wake as she fraudulently solicited loans to pay off her debts, and other victims, in what a judge described as a Ponzi-type scheme.
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A Gold Coast finance broker who swindled more than $3 million from friends, clients, and business partners has been jailed for seven years, watched on by a courtroom packed with victims united in their loathing of the defendant.
Yatala woman Susan Elizabeth Maloney, 53, appeared in Southport District Court via audiovisual link on Tuesday, having previously pleaded guilty to a five-count indictment.
She admitted to three counts of fraud and two counts of forgery committed on various dates over an 11-year period, from 2009 to 2021.
The offending was committed in two ways: first, via her part ownership of local construction outfit Format Constructions, and second, via her own finance brokerage, Zebra Finance.
Regarding Format Constructions, she met the director, Derek Collins, via her work as a finance broker, and became friends with him and his wife Tanya.
So close did the relationship become that she eventually took a 20 per cent stake in the company, where she was responsible for its financial administration.
From January 2011 to December 2014, she solicited $601,000 worth of loans to the business from various persons and corporate entities, using forged loan agreements purportedly signed by Mr Collins.
She also forged documents to prevent Bankwest foreclosing on a Wellington Point dwelling owned by Format, the court heard.
There is no suggestion the Collinses were aware of Maloney’s fraudulent activity, nor are they charged with any wrongdoing.
Needing to repay those who had been duped into providing loans to Format, and satisfy other debts she had incurred, Maloney’s offending progressed to a new stage.
Using Zebra Finance as a vehicle, she defrauded 19 complainants of a collective $2,535,240 by asking them to provide bridging loans to clients of hers (the clients had no idea their details were being used in this way – their signatures had been forged on the fake agreements).
Maloney promised the complainants – some of whom she had been friends with for two decades or more – they would receive their principal plus substantial interest payments once institutional investors provided long-term loans to the borrower.
In fact, they would only receive their money back once Maloney duped other people into stumping up cash, a modus operandi described by Judge Katarina Prskalo KC as a Ponzi-type scheme and Maloney’s defence counsel Russell Pearce as “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
Of the approximately $2.5m defrauded via Zebra Finance, $1,346,390.64 was never repaid (all victims of the Format scheme were repaid – from the pockets of Zebra victims).
Often, victims would only discover the ruse when they were sent a statutory letter of demand from another victim – neither knowing they had both been set up.
Crown prosecutor Jessica Guy summarised several victim impact statements, all of which attested to the ruin caused by Maloney.
One man said he required therapy and struggled to form trusting relationships now; a couple said their superannuation had been drained.
Mr Pearce, the defence counsel, said his client’s original offending, involving Format Constructions, stemmed from her being left in charge of the business when Mr Collins, the director, was sent to Cairns for work for several years.
He said she had no experience in running construction businesses, the business was struggling, and she did what she thought she needed to in order to survive.
“It spiralled out of hand, she was keeping everything on foot by moving money around,” he said.
“She was left to do her best, but her best was not enough.”
He claimed that “only a small proportion” of the misappropriated funds made their way to Maloney as a financial gain.
“There was no pot of gold,” Mr Pearce said.
He described the period of her offending as a “nightmare” for his client – an assertion met with harrumphs and guffaws in the gallery, such that the bailiff was forced to have a discreet word with them.
Judge Prskalo told Maloney she had left a trail of destruction in her wake.
“There is no sentence I can impose that can undo all the harm which has been inflicted on the complainants,” she said.
Judge Prskalo sentenced the defendant to seven years’ imprisonment, with parole eligibility set at June 11, 2027, taking into account 104 days of pre-sentence custody.
Several victims spoken to by this masthead expressed their displeasure she would be serving it at the low-security Numinbah Correctional Centre, feeling it to be far too salubrious for her ilk.
Tanya Collins said her husband Derek lost his company, Format Constructions, as a result of Maloney’s underhanded actions.
“Justice was not served considering the amount of people that were defrauded by this woman,” Mrs Collins said.
“She has destroyed lives.
“We and everyone affected by this woman’s actions will never recover.”
Another victim, Col Pitts, was far more succinct.
“I’ve lost everything,” he said.
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Originally published as Susan Elizabeth Maloney: Gold Coast finance broker jailed for swindling $3 million-plus
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